Got my first DMCA letter

[Roofus]

Charter Tracking Ticket#: 2506135

Dear Internet Access Subscriber:

Charter Communications ("Charter") has been notified by a copyright owner
that your Internet account has been involved in the exchange of
unauthorized copies of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice
that Charter received from the copyright holder of copyrighted material
(music, movies, or software). We are enclosing a copy of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice that Charter received from the
copyright holder.

It is possible that this activity has occurred without your permission or
knowledge by an unauthorized user, a minor who may not fully understand
the copyright laws, or even as a result of a computer virus. However, as
a Charter Internet account owner, you can be held liable for this
activity.

As a personal computer owner and a user of the Internet, we ask that you
be aware of the following: Violations of federal Copyright law can result
in civil and/or criminal liability, including payment of monetary damages,
costs and attorneys' fees to the copyright owner. See 17 U.S.C. §§
504-506. In addition, Charter's Acceptable Use Policy explicitly prohibits
copyright infringement by Charter High-Speed Internet users.
Specifically, Section 3 states:

NO COPYRIGHT OR TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT
Customer will not use, or allow others to use, the Service to send or
receive, or otherwise use any information which infringes the patents,
trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets or proprietary rights of any other
person or entity. This includes, but is not limited to, digitization of
music, movies, photographs or other copyrighted materials or software.
Customer must obtain appropriate authorization from such other person or
entity prior to sending, receiving or using such materials. Customer
represents and warrants that Customer is the author and copyright owner
and/or authorized licensee with respect to any hosted content and Customer
further represents and warrants that no hosted content violates the
trademark, copyright, domain name or intellectual property rights of any
third party. Charter assumes no responsibility, and Customer assumes all
risks regarding the determination of whether material is in the public
domain, or may otherwise be used for such purposes.

Charter is registered under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998
(DMCA). Under the DMCA, copyright owners have the right to notify Charter
if they believe that a Charter customer has infringed the copyright
owner's work(s). If Charter receives a notice from a copyright owner
alleging any Customer has committed copyright infringement, Charter will
notify the Customer of the alleged infringement. Charter may determine
that Customer is a repeat copyright infringer if Charter learns that
Customer has engaged in online copyright infringement on more than one
occasion. Charter reserves the right to suspend or terminate the accounts
of repeat copyright infringers.

We ask that you take immediate action to remove the infringing material
from your computer and stop its exchange. If Charter continues to receive
DMCA notices regarding your account, or if you violate any other clause of
Charter's Acceptable Use Policy, we will have no choice but to terminate
your account. You may view Charter's rules and policies at
http://www.charter.com/site/policies.aspx.

If you need assistance in removing the referenced infringing material,
please refer to the Security Center at http://www.charter.com.

If you have any questions about this matter, please contact us at
1-866-229-7286. Representatives will be available to take your call Monday
through Friday 8am - 8pm, and Saturday and Sunday 8am - 5pm (CST).

Sincerely,

Charter High-Speed Internet Security Team
http://security.charter.com

===================

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From: universal-studios-no-reply@copyright-compliance.com
Subject: DMCA Notification Notice ID: 14-15317354
To: DMCA@charter.net
Reply-To: universal-studios-no-reply@copyright-compliance.com
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:14:16 -0700
X-Chzlrs: 0

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Re: Unauthorized Use of NBC Universal Properties
Notice ID: 14-15317354
16 Aug 2007 01:13:56 GMT

Dear Sir or Madam:

Please be advised that NBC Universal and/or its subsidiary and affiliated
companies (collectively, NBC Universal) are the owners of exclusive rights
protected under copyright law and other intellectual property rights in
many motion pictures and television programs, including the title(s)
listed below (the NBC Universal Properties). NBC Universal diligently
enforces its rights in its motion pictures.

It has come to our attention that Charter Communications is the service
provider for the IP address listed below, from which unauthorized copying
and distribution (downloading, uploading, file serving, file "swapping" or
other similar activities) of the NBC Universal Property or Properties
listed below, or portion(s) thereof, is taking place. We believe that the
Internet access of the user engaging in this infringement is provided by
Charter Communications or a downstream service provider who purchases this
connectivity from Charter Communications.

This unauthorized copying and distribution constitutes copyright
infringement under Section 106 of the U.S. Copyright Act. Depending upon
the type of service Charter Communications is providing to this IP
address, it may have legal and/or equitable liability if it does not
expeditiously remove or disable access to the motion picture(s) listed
below, or if it fails to implement a policy that provides for termination
of subscribers who are repeat infringers (see 17 U.S.C. 512).

Despite the above, NBC Universal believes that the entire Internet
community benefits when these matters are resolved cooperatively. We urge
you to take immediate action to stop this infringing activity and inform
us of the results of your actions. We appreciate your efforts toward this
common goal.

The undersigned has a good faith belief that use of the NBC Universal
Property or Properties in the manner described herein is not authorized by
NBC Universal, its agent or the law. The information contained in this
notification is accurate. Under penalty of perjury, the undersigned is
authorized to act on behalf of NBC Universal with respect to this matter.

Please be advised that this letter is not intended to be a complete
statement of the facts or law as they may pertain to this matter or of NBC
Universal's positions, rights or remedies, legal or equitable, all of
which are specifically reserved.

Please send us a prompt response indicating the actions you have taken to
resolve this matter, making sure to reference the Notice ID number above
in your response.

mailto:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=

If you do not wish to reply by email, please use our Web Interface by
clicking on the following link:

http://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/webreply/webreply.jsp

Note: If your email program has inserted line breaks into either the
email or web links above, you can copy and paste the entire link in to
you email program, or favorite web browser, respectively.



*pgp public key is available on the key server at ldap://keyserver.pgp.com
** For any correspondence regarding this case, please send your emails to
antipiracy@nbcuni.com and refer to Notice ID: 14-15317354. If you need
immediate assistance or if you have general questions please call the
number listed above.
Title: Bionic Woman (TV)
Infringement Source: BitTorrent
Initial Infringement Timestamp: 11 Aug 2007 07:15:04 GMT
Recent Infringement Timestamp: 11 Aug 2007 07:15:04 GMT
Infringer Username:
Infringing Filename: Bionic.Woman.S01E01.PREAIR.DVDRip.XviD-CRX.avi
Infringing File size: 734181376
Infringers IP Address: xxxxxxxxxxx
Infringers DNS Name: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Infringing URL: http://www.eztvefnet.org:60500/announce


- ---Start ACNS XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?

<Infringement xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://mpto.unistudios.com/xml/Infringement_schema.xsd"
<Case
<ID15317354</ID
<StatusOpen</Status
</Case
<Complainant
<EntityNBC Universal</Entity
<ContactAaron Markham, Director of Internet Anti-Piracy</Contact
<Address100 Universal City Plaza (2160/7E), Universal City, California
91608 United States of America</Address
<Phone818-777-4876,</Phone
<Emailxxxxxxxxxxx/Email
</Complainant
<Service_Provider
<EntityCharter Communications</Entity
<Address</Address
<EmailDMCA@charter.net</Email
</Service_Provider
<Source
<TimeStamp2007-08-11T07:15:04.000Z</TimeStamp
<IP_Addressxxxxxxxxxxxx</IP_Address
<Port</Port
<DNS_Namexxxxxxxxxxxxx</DNS_Name
<TypeBitTorrent</Type
<UserName</UserName
<Number_Files1</Number_Files
<Deja_VuNo</Deja_Vu
</Source
<Content
<Item
<TitleBionic Woman (TV)</Title
<FileNameBionic.Woman.S01E01.PREAIR.DVDRip.XviD-CRX.avi</FileName
<FileSize734181376</FileSize
<URLhttp://www.eztvefnet.org:60500/announce</URL
</Item
</Content
</Infringement
- ---End ACNS XML
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 8.0

iD8DBQFGw6TovmTY1IeHkqERAlcvAJ9OX6tu+TOrVMYkVhwar+fHQJNFewCgjy25
Fppby/PGV/yZ/zZnLUTw7HQ=
=RXTa
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

It may be tl;dr, but the important bit is here:

Please send us a prompt response indicating the actions you have taken to
resolve this matter, making sure to reference the Notice ID number above
in your response.

mailto:xxx@xxxxx.com
If you do not wish to reply by email, please use our Web Interface by
clicking on the following link:

http://webreply.xxxxxx.com/webreply/webreply.jsp
Note: If your email program has inserted line breaks into either the
email or web links above, you can copy and paste the entire link in to
you email program, or favorite web browser, respectively.

The web form has three radio buttons saying basically "Yes, I've complied and removed the offending material," "No, I haven't complied" and "Mistake, you've got the wrong guy"

I clicked yes and was about to hit submit when it occured to me that they just want an admission of guilt. How should I answer? Should I tell them it was a mistake? I'm thinking I'll tell them that my neighbor was using my wireless and I noticed and secured it. I'm a little worried about this. I am glad it was NBC that caught me and not the RIAA; at least NBC isn't all that sue-happy. I'm sure I only have a finite amount of time to reply though before they get mad.

[mankrip]

Damn, Bionic Woman? They should have paid you to watch that.

[Specially Cork]

Damn, Bionic Woman? They should have paid you to watch that.

It's the 2007 remake I think. Hasn't started yet but the trailer I saw looked pretty good.

I personally just wouldn't reply to that e-mail. You have the right to remain silent and all that. All 3 options could be twisted against you. Stay quiet and go from there.

[butters]

I wouldn't respond without having the advice of an attorney. Pretty sad that your ISP passed the letter on. Several ISPs don't.

[|darc|]

A while back HBO contact Cox about my downloading an episode of Entourage, Cox disabled (not disconnected; the modem still connected but the power light blinked) my connection without telling me. Even after I called them asking what's up they said that I was connected to the internet and should be fine; finally they had to schedule a tech to come out to my house in a week. Very pissed about losing my internet, they called me up the day before the service date and finally told me what had really happened: they cut me off because of HBO. They asked me to delete the episode, I said I did, and they pressed a button and connected me back without anything else happening.

[Code-Red]

You guys need to cut the warez sharing, thats what that is. I barely share anything (other than with a friend, or uTorrent upload), and the only time I ever got caught was by Dr. Dre on Napster, cause I downloaded Chronic 2001 when it came out.

[|darc|]

You guys need to cut the warez sharing, thats what that is. I barely share anything (other than with a friend, or uTorrent upload), and the only time I ever got caught was by Dr. Dre on Napster, cause I downloaded Chronic 2001 when it came out.

Um. Torrent transferring is how you get caught...

[Code-Red]

I see.... good thing I dont do it often then.

[Ex-Cyber]

The web form has three radio buttons saying basically "Yes, I've complied and removed the offending material," "No, I haven't complied" and "Mistake, you've got the wrong guy"

I clicked yes and was about to hit submit when it occured to me that they just want an admission of guilt. How should I answer? Should I tell them it was a mistake? I'm thinking I'll tell them that my neighbor was using my wireless and I noticed and secured it. I'm a little worried about this. I am glad it was NBC that caught me and not the RIAA; at least NBC isn't all that sue-happy. I'm sure I only have a finite amount of time to reply though before they get mad.

I'm 99.999% sure that form is meant for the ISP, not for you. The ISP is legally responsible for removing access to the listed material - your role in the process is to dispute the takedown if the original notice was erroneous. The most important thing is to ensure that the material is no longer accessible, because your ISP is legally obligated to make sure that this happens, and might disconnect you altogether as a last resort. I don't think you're legally required to respond at all, least of all directly to NBC/Universal; if you want to talk to someone, it should be your lawyer or your ISP.

[Thomas]

You guys need to cut the warez sharing, thats what that is. I barely share anything (other than with a friend, or uTorrent upload), and the only time I ever got caught was by Dr. Dre on Napster, cause I downloaded Chronic 2001 when it came out.

Um. Torrent transferring is how you get caught...

If you use public networks. Privates ones are more secure by a little bit.

[Roofus]

Well, I'm not about to hire a lawyer over this, and now I'm leaning towards ignoring it. How likely do you all suppose this is to just go away? And what would the potential consequences be? Finally, is there a place I can go for free advice?

[Ex-Cyber]

How likely do you all suppose this is to just go away?

If you're no longer providing the file, very likely.

And what would the potential consequences be?

The worst consequence that I think is plausible is losing your internet connection, and I think that would only apply if you were still providing the file.

Finally, is there a place I can go for free advice?

Not sure about live advice, but there's a lot of good background material at http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/faq.cgi

[gRiMgRaVy014]

If you're no longer sharing the file, I'd say it'd be safe to just ignore it.

[Thomas]

I'd just ignore it.

[APE]

I'd be like "prove it" then sue them for slander.

[butters]

I'd be like "prove it" then sue them for slander.

In that case you'd have to prove that you have been harmed. Care to have your hard drive examined? Don't try that 7 pass delete crap either, or they'll just say that you removed the evidence, and then you might find yourself in contempt of court.

[APE]

I'd be like "prove it" then sue them for slander.

In that case you'd have to prove that you have been harmed. Care to have your hard drive examined? Don't try that 7 pass delete crap either, or they'll just say that you removed the evidence, and then you might find yourself in contempt of court.

Try Peter Gutmann 35 pass, I'll say it simply never existed and that by attempting to have me held in contempt of court they're calling me a liar and that is something I am not. Thus slander. Course if you want me to prove slander before actually going to court? Saying I'm a software pirate isn't exactly a bonus to your reputation unless you happen to lead the pirate party.

[Roofus]

I talked to a lawyer (my dad's friend's son) and he said to ignore it. If they do pursue it, then I should tell them my wireless got hacked or something,

[Ex-Cyber]

Try Peter Gutmann 35 pass

The Gutmann algorithm is basically obsolete; it depends on low-level assumptions and a degree of control that can't be guaranteed in modern drives. Gutmann himself has reportedly said that the best you can do on modern drives is a few passes of writing random data, although I can't find a citation for that. In any case, modern drives have much more complex internal management schemes for performance optimization, fault tolerance, monitoring etc. and you really can't be sure that the bit patterns you write have any specific connection to the bits written to the physical medium, that a given logical sector maps to the same physical sector each time it's accessed, and so on - all that stuff is abstracted away behind the (S)ATA or SCSI protocols and handled entirely within the drive.

[Code-Red]

What's with everyone and hardware wiping? Just fucking get a 40gb drive, toss it in there, and hide the other one. What are they going to say?

OH WE SCANNED YOUR HARDWARE PROFILE AND NOTICED YOU HAD A SEAGATE, NOW YOU'VE GOT A WESTERN DIGITAL?!?!?

Yea....